In this post, we will learn How to setup Raspberry Pi 3 Model-B for Programming. As we have seen an Introduction of Raspberry Pi 3 in the previous post. Let’s get a jump start onto preparing SD Card and boot raspberry pi for first time. Now if we have new Raspberry Pi 3 then we have two choices by which we can boot. The first way is using HDMI Monitor which is easy but often time we won’t be having a monitor at our disposal. The second way is referred as headless setup in which we will connect Raspberry Pi 3 to internet router to get IP Address to access Pi over SSH Client. The one thing we need to have before we proceed any further. We must have Micro SD Card with latest Raspbian OS image. Now the question is How to prepare SD Card for Raspbian OS? So let’s make our SD Card bootable.

1. Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Sd Slots
2. Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Sd Card Slot

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B was released in February 2016 with a 1.2 GHz 64-bit quad core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, on-board 802.11n Wi-Fi. SD, MMC, SDIO card slot (3. Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Starter Kit Raspberry Pi Motherboard 5v 2.5a On/off Power Supply Black Case 16gb Sd Card, Find Complete Details about Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Starter Kit Raspberry Pi Motherboard 5v 2.5a On/off Power Supply Black Case 16gb Sd Card,Raspberry Pi 3b+ Game Kit,Canakit Raspberry Pi 3 B (b Plus) With Premium Clear Case And 2.5a Power Supply Canakit,Aspberry Pi 3 B+ from Development. ABOX Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Complete Starter Kit with Model B Plus Motherboard 16GB Micro SD Card NOOBS, 5V 3A On/Off Power Supply, Premium Clear Case, HDMI Cable, SD Card Reader with USB A&USB C, Heatsink. Copy the bootcode.bin file onto your newly created and otherwise blank FAT32 imaged Micro SD card and then insert the Micro SD card back into the Raspberry Pi. Now connect your USB storage back to the Pi and power it on. The Pi will boot directly from your USB storage device! The Micro SD card slot on the Raspberry Pi 3 is located just below the Display Serial Adapter on the other side. Insert the Micro SD card which was loaded with NOOBS in the slot and plug in power supply. The 7' LCD Touch Screen displays the rainbow square for a few seconds and then boots into the NOOBS Start-up screen.

List of Software need to Installed

• 7Zip Program: To extract downloaded Raspbian OS Image
• SDFormatter: To format SD Card to begin initial setup process
• Win32DiskImager: To load OS Image Raspbian onto SD Card
• Advanced IP Scanner: To get IP address of Raspberry Pi
• PuTTY Client: SSH Client to access Raspberry Pi on windows

List of Components and Parts Required

• Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Kit
• Micro USB Cable
• Micro SD Card and SD Card Adapter
• LAN Cable
• HDMI Monitor, USB Keyboard and Mouse (optional)

Prepare SD Card: Setup Raspbian on Raspberry Pi 3

The first step to bring Raspberry Pi 3 in action is to download the latest version of Raspbian OS Image from an official web page. As shown in the picture below, we have to download a zip file and extract using 7Zip Program.

Next step is to format Micro SD Card using SDFormatter. It’s pretty simple. We recommend you to do fully format go to Options à choose Full Erase. The fully formatted Micro SD Card is ready to load Raspbian on it.

Next step is to Open up Win32DiskImager. In Win32DiskImager, we will have to browse Raspbian image and select destination drive where our SD Card is attached. Once you’re sure about the path of OS image and destination drive, then simply hit “write” button. This will take for a while to write the image onto Micro SD Card.

When process completes we will see popup box saying “write successful! Ok“. We can observe that our untitled SD Card will be referred as “boot”. This assures that our SD Card is ready. Now browse SD Card so that we can create file using notepad. Make sure to Save this newly created file with name as “ssh” (without any extension).

This file enables SSH access for Raspberry Pi 3 Model-B. In previous version of Raspberry Pi we need not have to do this. But later on Raspberry Pi foundation realized that many people are unaware about this file. So user won’t be accidentally exposed. Ultimately this provides a security check.

The next step is to remove Micro SD Card from Adaptor to put onto Raspberry Pi 3. To do this we recommend you to give some respect to SD Card by safely remove hardware on a windows machine.

At this point, our Micro SD Card is ready to insert into Raspberry Pi 3 (Micro SD Card Slot on the backside of Pi). Now simply insert SD Card into Pi 3. Also, connect LAN Cable between Internet Router and RJ45 Ethernet Slot of Raspberry Pi. The only thing left at this point to connect Micro USB Cable to power-up Rapberry Pi 3. So power-up Pi and observe the status of onboard leds. If everything goes fine up to this point then we will get Red LED light up and Green LED will be blinking in an interval.

We can open a browser and enter 192.168.1.1 to access router settings. The popup box will ask you to provide username and password, make sure to enter both as admin. In Router settings, you will find DHCP listing. From there we have to note the IP address assigned to Raspberry Pi3. You can also use Advance IP Scanner to get IP Address of Pi.

Here at this point we are ready to put Raspberry Pi into action. Now open PuTTY and enter Host Name or IP Address of Raspberry Pi in my case it’s a 192.168.1.8 and hit open button.

We will be presented with screen. This time we have to enter Login as: pi and Password: raspberry. And we are done with setup of Raspberry Pi 3 and initial boot process.

Live Demo: How to setup Raspberry Pi 3 Model-B

This is it for How to setup Raspberry Pi 3 Model-B for Programming. We hope this post will help you drive Raspberry pi 3 into action. In next tutorial we will see how to setup Wi-Fi network on raspberry Pi 3. If you still have any questions feel free to leave a comment. Thanks for reading.

Below I’ve reviewed the best SD card for Raspberry Pi 3. Hint: our benchmark tests show that Samsung EVO Plus outperformed all the SanDisk, Lexar, Toshiba, Sony SD cards.

Most SD-cards have poor build-quality and lack wear leveling. Jeff outlined that the raspberry pi 3 sd card worked seamlessly for more than a year.

The many Raspberry pi 3 sd card reads & writes (random) will break the card. Check the write up by Jeff Geerling at the MidwesternMac.

Reviews: Top 9 Best SD Card for Raspberry Pi 3 in 2020

1. Samsung EVO Plus Class 10 Micro SDHC – Our Top Pick

I recommend this Samsung EVO Plus as the best micro SD card for Raspberry Pi 3. It offers 8.61 4K read speed & 3.23 4K Write speed. 32GB is enough for your Raspberry Pi 3 but check for larger storage. Overclocking Raspberry Pi 3 can twerk its performance.

The relevant superior performance is the 4K random read and 4K random write – which it posted speed on 8.61 and 3.23 respectively.

We achieved comparable results on a similar test with Raspberry Pi 3 model 3B & 3B+. However, if the microSD card is larger than 32GB, you’ll need to format it from Exfat to fat32 so that it’ll be compatible with your Pi device.

I noted that Samsung Evo+ will also work excellent for other devices such as HD video recording, mobile gaming, and music. Considering the temperature of operation, the microSD will tolerate -24 Celsius and 86° Celsius of operation.

2. SanDisk Extreme 32GB microSDHC UHS-3 Card – Runner-Up

The SanDisk Extreme is built for top speeds (4K read and 4K Write) of 8.35 and 2.28 respectively, which is great for Raspberry Pi 3. Further, it has a write speed at highly of 90MB/s.

The UHS Speed Class 3 (U3) model is just as fast as the Evo Select. I noted that the UHS cards are significantly cheap and high performing too. The SanDisk Extreme is about as fast as the Evo Select.

However, this sd card is a bit costly compared to the Samsung Pro+ or Samsung Evo+. I believe this MicroSD also offers top performance and reliability while working in the Raspberry Pi3.

SanDisk Extreme provides a write speed of 17.40MB/s and thus great for Raspberry Pi projects and shooting videos. The MicroSD has high reliability and endurance, which makes it endure harsh conditions such as long write and read period for the Raspberry Pi 3 projects.

3. Samsung Pro Plus 32GB MicroSDHC – Larger Capacity

Samsung Pro Plus maintains having write speeds of 90MB/s and read speeds of 95MB/s – but can be overclocked for better performance. In addition, the SD-card is magnet-proof, X-ray-proof, and waterproof.

Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Sd Slots

The microSD, being UHS-I compliant, is great for Raspberry pi 3 projects, video and still shots. It’s in the market as 32GB & 64GB capacities. Samsung Pro+ is highly reliable and has Top write speed performance.

With the light grey color, Samsung Pro+ maintains Samsung’s amazing design. Further, its storage and data transfer capacity is top-notch, which makes it a favorite for Raspberry Pi applications, tablets, and high-end DSLRs.

Further, the SD card is resistant to water, X-Rays, and Magnetic fields. On aesthetics, Samsung EVO+ has an excellent exterior design that you’ll love. Related: Best OS for Raspberry Pi 3

4. Samsung EVO Select (U3) MicroSD 64GB – 100MB/s Card

Physical Size – Notably, there are two types of SD card sizes: the larger SD card and the smaller microSD cards. The larger SD card was mainly compatible with the older Raspberry Pi – Raspberry Pi 1 (Model B).

However, the new Raspberry Pi models (from B+ 512 model) now use the smaller MicroSD card. For starters, the MicroSD card is your regular mobile phone data SD card. This card is compatible with Raspberry Pi 2 & Raspberry 3.

5. SanDisk Ultra 32GB microSDHC UHS-I Card with Adapter

However, if you’d love to beat all this trouble, you’ll need to go for an sd card that has “wear-leveling”. In this methodology, the writers use for blocks of the SD memory in your chip will be spread out to avoid writing on one block over and over.

Micro SD class 10 – Notably, class 10 SD cards will have higher speed compared to other SD cards from class 2 to class 9. For the Raspberry Pi 3, the SD cards act as a hard drive, and thus a class 10 would be great. However, you can also consider the UHS Class 1 that is even faster than the class 10 SD cards.

The next technique is using RAMDRIVE to maximize your SD lifespan. This would involve the raspberry pi reading all the log files to the RAM during startup, then write it to your RAM, and during shut down (deliberate), it’ll write them back to your SD card.

Luckily, you can use a Ramlog (follow this guide) to write logs only during power down. Sneak peek My Raspberry Pi 3 project for Electronic Music.

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Sd Card Slot

Considerations in Best SD Card for Raspberry Pi 3

Wear leveling

The sd card wears issue is highly misunderstood by most tech guys. Notably, the tech guys provide inconsistent SD lifespan explanations mainly because most of them do not do the real test before putting up blog posts.

SD cards have limited write time like we’d noted above, as you use it with your Raspberry Pi 3. But, the SD lifetime will highly vary with the “disk” activity, which denotes the count of WRITES.

Therefore, to maximize the raspberry pi 3 sd card lifespan, you should make the Raspberry Pi boot from your microSD and then the other operations and data to run from a hard drive. Get a powered USB hub for external file storage.

Conclusion

Therefore, shove that cheap SD card aways and get the Samsung Evo+ for your Raspberry Pi 3 for top overall speeds, and high 4K random read & 4K random write speeds.